In this beautiful, poetic ode to the life-giving force of water,
award-winning children’s book author Jorge Argueta describes—in English,
Spanish and Nahuat—the life cycle of water from the perspective of one drop.

From its birth deep in Mother Earth, Little Water climbs to the
surface, passing through roots and rocks, light and darkness. Finally, the tiny
bead of water makes it to the top and rests,

“A sigh of morning dew

on the tips of leaves

on spider webs

or on the petals

of flowers.”

The droplet becomes a river, a lake, an ocean, ultimately
climbing to the sky and turning into a cloud. Then,

“Drop by drop

I return singing

to our Mother Earth.

I am Little Water.

I am life.”

With stunningly beautiful illustrations by Felipe Ugalde
Alcántara that depict the mountains, rocks, vegetation and animals of the
natural world, this poem about the importance of water reflects Argueta’s
indigenous roots and his appreciation for nature. Containing the English and
Spanish text on each page, the entire poem appears at the end in Nahuat, the
language of Argueta’s Pipil-Nahua ancestors. This book is an excellent choice
to encourage children to write their own poems about the natural world and to
begin conversations about the interconnected web of life.

JORGE ARGUETA is a prize-winning poet and author of more than
twenty children’s picture books, including A Movie in My Pillow / Una película
en mi almohada (Children’s Book Press, 2001), Guacamole: Un poema para concinar
/ A Cooking Poem (Groundwood, 2016) and Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the
Clouds (Groundwood Books, 2016), which won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award
and was named to USBBY’s Outstanding International Book List, the ALA Notable
Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. He lives
and works in San Francisco, California.

FELIPE UGALDE ALCÁNTARA was born in Mexico City in 1962. He
studied Graphic Communication at the National School of Art in Mexico’s
National University, where he later taught an illustration workshop. He has
been an illustrator and designer for children’s books, textbooks, and
educational games for fifteen years. He has taught illustration workshops for
children and professionals, and has participated in several exhibitions in
Mexico and abroad.